This summer, Marc Yamada was sworn in as the 18th police chief in Montgomery County, Maryland’s most populous region. A 37-year veteran of the department, he commands about 1,100 sworn officers and a large civilian staff. The 60-year-old, who succeeds Marcus Jones, has spent his whole life in Montgomery, growing up in Wheaton and raising four kids with his wife in Olney.
By Dan Morse
Montgomery’s violent crime totals are lower than in neighboring Prince George’s County and D.C., but higher than in Virginia’s Fairfax County, just across the Potomac River, according to recent crime statistics from the jurisdictions. Montgomery recorded 29 homicides last year and an overall increase of 7 percent in crimes against persons, according to county data. It also saw a big spike in auto thefts, which led to an 11 percent jump in crimes against property.
So far this year, incidents in most violent crime categories have remained steady or decreased from 2023, Yamada said, but shoplifting has increased 38 percent.
The Washington Post recently spoke with him about his biggest surprises since taking office, his personal background, and the largest challenges he sees in the county. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
How did you get into this profession?
I was attending Frostburg State University. I was in the business program. The thought was I’d own my own business. One day I went to a job fair in Frederick and saw a recruiting table with two Montgomery police officers — I remember them, Ora Lee Murray and Norman Washington — among all these Fortune 500 companies. I thought, “Well, I’ll talk to them.”
I liked being active and outside and not sitting behind a desk. I thought, “Maybe I’ll start with this.” And 37 years later here I am. So, I stumbled into law enforcement.
When you started, did you think about becoming the chief?
Never. My goal was never to get promoted, much less to be the chief. After I got on, I tried to migrate to undercover work, plainclothes work. I did that for 20 years. I loved it. I worked undercover, like, truly undercover. I got to do things I only saw in movies. Buying drugs, had fake ID, traveled around the country, worked federal drug cases. The whole nine yards. I drove around in an unmarked pickup truck or station wagon, dyed my hair blond, had earrings. My neighbors had no idea what I did. And then one day I got promoted and had to put my uniform back on. A couple of my neighbors saw me and said, “I always wondered what you did.”
What’s been your biggest surprise since becoming chief?
The number of requests to speak to community groups, individuals, places of worship, etc., has been overwhelming. I feel terrible that I have not done what I have always prided myself on doing — making a point to come out of my office or from behind just to ask, “How you doing?” or talk about sports or something non-police-related. And not because I wanted something. I have not had a chance to go by any of my bureaus, the units, the district stations, just to say: “Hey, what’s going on? I’m your guy.”
What keeps you up at night?
Fentanyl and opiates, especially among juveniles. School shootings. Guns. Officers are seeing more guns than ever. They are being used more and more by our youth. And what keeps any chief up: losing an officer. And not just an officer being struck by a car or a drunk driver or being shot. We have for a long time in law enforcement recognized that mental health is an issue. I’m not sure we’ve taken any affirmative steps to address it. So, we’ve created space at our academy, a wellness room for officers. And I’m trying to make it so that officers don’t feel stigmatized and we can get them help.
What’s in the room?
There are just chairs and places to sit. And a small office area where someone can be isolated. We are trying to build it out.
Returning to your background, you’ve spoken about your dad and his family — as Japanese Americans — being sent to an incarceration camp during World War II. What are your thoughts on that?
They wound up in Poston, Arizona. My dad decided to join the United States Army. They had to sneak him out in the bottom of a laundry basket. He wound up in Washington, D.C., and he met my mom, who was serving breakfast to soldiers at First Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. The fact that he chose to join the U.S. Army is kind of amazing to me. He had every reason to hate the United States, but chose instead to try and help.
Did you ever do other jobs?
In college, I sold medical supplies. I would go by doctors’ offices and ask, “Do you want to buy gloves or a new table?”
Did you like that?
It sucked. Cold-call sales are a horrible way to try to make a living. Sales weren’t my gig.
Montgomery County formerly had uniformed school resource officers [SROs] in its high schools. They have been supplanted by community engagement officers [CEOs]. How much presence should officers have in schools?
So, it’s a tricky question, right? What Marc Yamada wants — as a parent, a chief, I see a lot of pluses of having officers in schools. Others have a different opinion. So, you have to balance that. As the chief, I’m going to try to give people what they want — whether it’s the community, whether it’s working closely with everyone at MCPS [Montgomery County Public Schools]. And then we all have to work together to figure out what that landscape looks like.
But would you say that, in some form or fashion, you’d like to have a more consistent police presence inside high schools and middle schools?
Yes, our goal is consistency across all schools — not something different depending on who the principal is. Each CEO now has office space in each high school, and is assigned to the middle and elementary schools that feed into it. We will not patrol halls, and we are absolutely not involved in school discipline. Our CEOs focus on building relationships and enhancing trust with students. Students are far more apt to share information about what is going on behind the scenes at schools. This allows for CEOs to identify potential issues that may extend out into our communities. Last year, we received calls from parents whenever they saw a cruiser parked near a school because they were afraid something bad had happened. We would like the perception of an officer’s cruiser to also be a good thing.
You have a police drone in three of your six districts. How much do you want to expand it?
I would like to have a drone site in every district. And I’d like to have two drones at each site. And we’re trying to get drone trucks, much like a K-9 officer. But it’s not cheap.
Montgomery police leadership has sometimes had a rocky relationship with its powerful police union. But the union supported your nomination for chief, and its president, Lee Holland, says you two speak almost every day. Do you expect that to continue?
Lee and I have always had a great relationship. Some people that scares because they’re like, “You’re just going to give them whatever they want.” I’m not going to do that. I’ve never done that. Am I going to be fair? Am I going to listen to them? Absolutely. I don’t have dinner with Lee. I don’t drink beer with Lee. We don’t hang out together outside of work.
Low police staffing levels and recruitment of new officers are challenges nationwide. How are you going to address that?
If I could solve recruiting, I’d get a job pretty much anywhere in the country.
Some of the ideas are to just approach it differently. Instead of having two recruiters at the job table who may not have been on the road for a number of years, you also have a detective, a drone pilot, a SWAT officer, a K-9 officer, a motorcycle officer there to say this is who you can be in our department. You know, really try to sell it.
Also, I played Division III basketball, and there are a number of our officers who also played sports in college. My wife came up with the idea of “Athletes to Officers.” We’d get a relationship at a college and come talk to their athletes — the idea being an athlete in college possesses all the qualities that we look for: decision-making, teamwork, physical fitness, the ability to handle stress, all those things.
What are some things people don’t know about you?
I have no social media whatsoever, no Twitter, not Facebook, Instagram, no X. None of that.
Do you think you need that as chief?
No. I am definitely old-school. I prefer in-person meetings to virtual, talking to people face to face rather than from behind a keyboard. Improving communication and relationships, both internal and external, are a huge priority for me. But in some ways, I think we’ve lost our ability to interact with people on a personal level, especially since the pandemic.
What else?
I was a DJ in college — me and my friend. The bar runner started paying us one to two dollars for every person we got to come to the club. We played records and got to drink beer for free and made a couple hundred bucks every night. The owner realized this and started paying us a fixed rate. We did it for three years.
